£40m fund to boost private giving to the Arts announced by ACE

By: 

Cheryl Chapman

Managing Editor, Philanthropy UK

A £40m funding package aimed at boosting private giving to the Arts has been announced by Arts Council England (ACE) and makes up part of a broader package to be announced by culture secretary Jeremy Hunt on Monday (July 4^th).

The £40m ‘Catalyst Arts’ fund will help build long-term resilience of arts organisations by increasing their fundraising potential and is part of the £80m scheme to boost philanthropy to the arts announced last December by Hunt.

ACE’s Louise Wylie says the fund has been designed to create ‘a step change’ in giving to the Arts, though emphasising they do not see it as a replacement of public funding. ACE is firmly committed to encouraging a mixed economy for arts funding she said.

The Catalyst Arts fund will be invested in three different ways:

• £30m of Lottery funds will be invested in an integrated match-funding and capacity building scheme. This fund will offer tailored awards that cover a three-year period. It will be open to individual organisations, or organisations working together, who have some experience of fundraising. This investment is designed to allow organisations to develop their ideas and capability in the first year, and then explore innovative ways of using match-funding to generate and secure new private giving. It is anticipated that the £30m fund will enable arts organisations to generate around £25m of new money from private giving by 2015.
• £7m of Lottery funds will be invested in a one-off grant scheme to support arts organisations with less experience to build their fundraising capacity. Awards ranging from £15,000 - £25,000 will provide individual organisations, or organisations working together, with the tools and skills needed to begin to raise, or increase their private income.
• A further £3m of Lottery funds will be invested in making available practical advice on how to secure new sources of funding. Part of this money will also be used to share the knowledge gained from Catalyst Arts with the wider sector.

The Catalyst Arts fund, further details of which will be available in September, is just one of the measures ACE is putting in place help to create a more sustainable, resilient and innovative arts sector – one of the five goals set out in its 10 year framework for the arts, Achieving Great Art for Everyone.

Alan Davey, chief executive of ACE said of the Catalyst Fund: “We said when we announced this scheme that we wanted it to be different from match-funding that has gone before. We said we wanted it to enhance – and not simply replace – existing gifts, and that it should work for arts organisations of all shapes and sizes, even those who have little experience of fundraising.

“In the same way that the Arts Council wants organisations to have the support and space to take artistic risks and be creative, we believe this fund will allow them to do the same with private giving; enabling them to build their skills and test new fundraising ideas, then share that knowledge with the wider sector.”

Jeremy Hunt, culture secretary  said: “The government’s drive to increase philanthropy in arts and culture is only a year old but already there is a huge amount of momentum that is going to make important and lasting changes.

“The announcement is great news and will particularly benefit smaller organisations that need help taking advantage of untapped fundraising opportunities.

The launch of the fund dovetails with the launch of a consultation from HM Treasury on tax incentives for major art donations and Hunt says both constitute “a big step forward”  in delivering significant changes for arts and cultural organisations across England.

Further initiatives which will form part of the £80 million scheme to boost private giving to the arts will be announced shortly.